Mark Moble appears to criticise Manuel Pellegrini’s tactics again in his Friday London Standard column.
While not naming the Chilean directly Nobes wrote “Teams in the Premier League now seem to be obsessed with playing out from their six-yard box and asking players to do something they are not comfortable with. Defending your goal has become uncool. I love playing expansive football but if you sat in a room with Martin Keown, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn and said to them, “You get the ball and play out from the back,” they would laugh at you. Their reply would be, “Get up the other end of the pitch, we play in their half, not ours.”
The captain continued “Football has become so complicated. Arsenal, for example, had double the amount of passes to us in the first half on Monday, yet we should have scored three goals from them trying to play out. I just don’t get it. Their best players are at the top end of the pitch so why don’t they get the ball up to them as quickly as possible? Liverpool, in contrast, play more long balls than most, while the Manchester United team that won the Treble in 1999 also didn’t play out much from the edge of their penalty area.
Players have got better and stronger but the basics haven’t changed. When I was playing for the Under-11s, the manager would shout out: “Win your tackles, your headers, your battles and the rest will take care of itself.”
Nothing has changed. Conceding three goals in such a short space of time against Arsenal was crazy but the mistake we made, after we had taken the lead, was thinking we could go on to score three or more. We should have stayed compact and hit them on the counter because they had to open up and try to score. We didn’t do that and as much as Arsenal didn’t play well, they can still punish you’
Claret and Hugh say:
This does seem to be a none too subtle final nail in Pellegrinini’s coffin from his own captain suggesting that the manager’s style and obsession with expansive football is partially to blame for West Ham’s current result and perhaps we should return to basics by defending our goal and concentrate on not conceding. We all know that Manuel Pellegrini is a stubborn manager who plays a particular way and is not that receptive to changing that for anyone. This latest suggestion by his skipper is also likely to fall on deaf ears and in the end that will be the Chilean’s undoing at West Ham which will cause his to lose his job. Fair play for Nobes for having the bottle to tell it as it is publicly.
Noble should shut up if he’s not part of the solution he’s part of the problem. It’s the players on the pitch , not putting in the effort. We’re not stupid fans , football requires effort , running and defending its basic and I can’t see them doing that. Noble is their to do a job slating the manager is not part of the job. Be careful what you wish for Noble cos Karma will come your way. Unprofessional player not running is the problem shifting the blame isn’t helpful every player should take responsibility . If I was a new manager I would be dropping half the team for their attitude and lack of effort and on this article that includes Noble ,what a disgrace no wonder we’re crap with that attitude.
sorry mate, but you’re just babbling here. Noble is actually right on this one and he knows plenty more about football than yerself (or me). he actually NEVER stops trying, the same can not be said for some of his team mates. when you talk about running, tackling and putting in an effort you’re just re-quoting what he said in his article. please think things through more carefully before you slag people off – like so many of our fans love to do.
As unpopular as it may be – You are dead right !!
I don’t want the manager to stay, one of the few who didn’t want him in the first place, but Noble isn’t helping here.
Mark, don’t believe the headline. There is no direct criticism of the players or pellegrini. Noble is a legend with a super attitude for the club..Don’t let claret and hugh fool you. The headline contradicts the article when it goes on to say he ‘appears’ to criticism..the actual people that are causing trouble hear is c and h. Not good Sean and hugh.Obviously got nothing else to write about.
Pellers has come to the end of his time here just pull the trigger and get rid of him and call the next taxi off the rank
As long as it’s not old saggy chops let’s not forget what he did to “King Billy”
Your right there mate i don’t want redknapp anywhere near our club.
He should stay at home with sandra and her roly polys. 😁
I agree with Noble 100%… It’s ridiculous to defend from the edge of your own penalty area! Stupid! Get the ball into the oppositions end and get THEM to defend!! There’s nothing wrong with a goalkeeper booting the ball 3/4 of the field and having the opposing team under pressure… You can still play fast flowing football when you have the ball, but do it in the last 18 NOT at the edge of your 18!,
Hoofball players will never be able to adapt to attacking short football.
People have been complaining for years that British youth players coming through lack technical ability, among other things.
I’m not saying that Pellers tactics would have worked with different players, but sadly there was/is not a chance of seeing beautiful attacking pass and move football for West Ham, with so many technically unskilled players (who also lack pace).
£200m wouldn’t have been enough for any manager in today’s market to upgrade every position that needed upgrading at the beginning of Pellers tenure.
So the players who cannot play in this attacking team make all the ones like Haller look awful.
Everyone loves Noble but he was one of many who needed to be replaced in order to push forward.
I expect to see nasty direct football at LS before seasons end. It’s the only thing that a lot of these technically Ungifted players will ever be able to do unfortunately.
The second problem any new coach will encounter is trying to determine WHO in the current squad is actually fit for purpose.
Whether Noble is right or wrong for his comments is irrelevant as it is pace down the middle that is a pre-requisite in today’s game and we do not have it.
Irrespective of the tactics, all too often, Noble loses the ball up-field, cannot possibly get back and his constant 360’s so that he can keep the ball on his right (as opposed to left) foot are ridiculous.
As with our country (allegedly), the first job for any new coach will be to establish a One-Team West Ham. Currently, the team consists of 11, totally disconnected, strays.
If that is not the coach’s responsibility, nothing is.
Non mea culpa, Guv!
When you watch the best team this season ie Liverpool.Its amazing how many of their attacks start with diagonal cross field passes hit at speed and bypassing the midfield altogether.Would help Haller as a target man.Look how many times we passed around the area on Monday too instead of getting it in the box.We all know the tactics are crap with 1 up top.It is so predictable.Would be good to bypass our midfield and change things considering the ages of Noble and Snodgrass too.
This is the problem. Noble hasn’t moved with the times. Noble is from the old lump it up to the big man school of thinking. Playing out from the back is only a problem if you haven’t got players skilled enough to pass the ball. Noble has been schooled by the likes of allardyce and is less likely to understand technical attacking football. I have noticed a switch to long ball football of late. In recent games I’ve lost track of the amount of long balls from the back which invariably go straight to the opposition and put us immediately on the defensive again. Defenders get tired, lose concentration and hey ho, another goal in the back of our net. What a surprise. The long ball football Noble aspires to also only works if you have players skilled enough to make decent long ball passes and attackers skilled enough to get on the end of them and create goal scoring opportunities. It’s easy for Liverpool to lump it up to a player like salah for instance because he will make the run required and will control the ball, bring it down and make something of it. But we haven’t all got a salah in our team.
What a load of crap dan..hoofball..Nobes is one of the best short and long passes we have at present..
I say at least mix it up abit get teams thinking what are we gonna do next instead of doing the same thing and making us predictable. Ain’t always got to go long and ain’t always got to play out from the back box it up abit, abitblime out approach play ain’t always got to try walk the ball in the box put some crosses in get teams thinking what we gonna do next. Our play defensively andnattackingnisnall to predictable